Hellmouth Revisited
by Tuch
Summary: Willow, now a Watcher, returns to Sunnydale 20 years after season 7 to face a familiar evil.
1. Default Chapter

Hellmouth Revisited  
Rating: R (for language and violence)  
Spoilers: To be on the safe side, if you don't want to be spoiled, don't read this if you're not current on Buffy.   
Summary: Willow, now a Watcher, returns to Sunnydale 20 years after the end of the series to train the new Slayer. She has to contend with a familiar evil set on destroying the town – and what life has become for the people she left behind.   
Disclaimer: The characters from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" aren't mine. They belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy, who do a much better job with them than I ever could. Hannah and the other non-Buffy characters ARE mine, and I get to do with them as I please.  
Notes: This takes place 20 years after the season 7 finale. I don't know how the season is going to end – it's just conjecture.   
  
It was hard to believe how young they all looked. Girls with leaden eye shadow and skirts that covered nothing; boys, nursing the beginnings of a beard, who towered over her 5-feet-6-inch frame. They laughed and jostled each other as they walked through the halls in cliques, and she could feel the energy emanating from them. Some thought they could handle anything, while others were afraid of their own footfalls. She pushed away the waves of fear, joy and frustration to focus on her new charge.  
  
Willow watched the girl rummage through her locker, her long, chocolate hair pulled back into a tight bun. Her skirt was long, and her white, button-down shirt was tucked in carefully. She pulled out some books, closed the locker carefully, and looked around as if preparing for an assault. Willow cringed. The girl had "Bully Punching Bag" written all over her. Not unlike herself in high school. But that was okay, because the girl, whether she knew it or not, was a Slayer, and her life would never be the same.   
  
Willow made her way through the crowd of teenagers toward the classroom at the end of the hall. The bell rang, and, when they quieted down, she forced down the knot of apprehension in her stomach and introduced herself.   
  
"Hello, class. My name is Miss Rosenberg, and I'll be your teacher this year." The kids nodded, and Willow was grateful for her subject matter. Students in honors math classes tended to be subdued.   
  
She began the first class by taking attendance and giving the students a worksheet full of math problems to work out. It would allow her to see where they were academically and give her time to study her charge, who had taken a seat all the way in the back near the window.   
  
"Hannah, can you give me the answer to the first question?" Willow asked.   
  
The girl stared at her blankly and then shook her head. She averted her eyes to the floor, and Willow was forced to move on. Thirty minutes later, the class was over, and she instructed the students to place their worksheets on her desk. As the kids filed out, she glanced at Hannah's paper. Every answer was right. Willow sighed. How was she going to teach the girl to fight vampires and demon scum if she was too afraid to speak up in class? She'd think of something. After all, the Watcher council wouldn't have assigned her a Slayer if they didn't think she could handle it.  
  
Four classes later, the day was over, and Willow made her way to the parking lot where her black, four-year-old Honda had been baking in the Sunnydale sunlight. As she slid her key into the keyhole, a hand on her shoulder made her jump.   
  
"Hey, there, long-lost buddy," a voice said. She released her breath. She'd recognize Xander's voice anywhere.   
  
Willow threw her arms around him in an enthusiastic hug and then stepped back, trying to take in how much he'd changed over the last 20 years. Time hadn't been kind to him. He looked much older than his 43 years, and the stooped way he carried himself bespoke of a weariness that made her heart ache. He still had his hair, and it was mostly black, but it was dull and listless, matching his eyes and skin. He was skinny in a way that screamed poor eating habits and too much nervous energy.   
  
"How are you?" she asked, squeezing his shoulder.   
  
"Fine, fine," he answered. "And you?"  
  
"No, Xander, I mean it. That wasn't a 'say-I'm-fine-so-we-can-both-get-on-with-our-lives' kind of question. Really. How are you?"  
  
Xander sighed. "Got a few hours?"  
  
Willow grinned. "Anything for a friend."  
  
* * *  
  
Ten minutes later, they were settled comfortably in a booth at Starbucks. Willow was working on a mocha latte, and Xander, after arguing for several minutes with the cashier, had finally gotten a cup of just plain coffee. Willow wondered when this Starbucks had been built, but it wasn't the foremost question on her mind.   
  
"What were you doing at the school?" Willow asked. "Please don't tell me you're still working on the science building."  
  
"No, no," Xander replied, shaking his head. "My crew is making repairs to the cafeteria. The last earthquake rattled it around a bit."  
They were quiet, and Willow allowed herself a moment of regret for not keeping in better touch with Xander over the years. They'd communicated through e-mail and over the phone, but Willow had forgotten how much she missed the familiarity that came with sitting face to face with her best friend.   
  
"So, how's Giles?" Xander asked.   
  
"He's been better. He doesn't get around so well since breaking his hip, but he's still uber research geek."  
  
He laughed. "It's nice to know some things never change."  
  
"So, you didn't answer my question before," Willow said, steering the conversation back to Xander. "How are you?"  
  
"Not too bad, considering. Losing Laurie has been hard, but I've got my work and Hannah to keep me busy."  
  
Willow gazed at her rapidly cooling latte, wondering how in the goddess' name she could tell him why she was here, after all he'd lost.   
  
"I'm sorry I couldn't make it to the funeral," Willow said softly. "I was in London. You know -- Watcher stuff."  
  
"I know," Xander said. "I understand. You missed seeing Dawn, though."  
  
"Really?" Willow asked, her voice perking up. She hadn't spoken to Dawn in more than five years.   
  
"Yeah. She just got divorced, and she's living in LA. She published her third horror novel."  
  
"That's great," Willow said enthusiastically. "I mean, about the book, not the divorce," she added quickly. "How was she about…you know."  
  
"She took Buffy's death better than I expected. Better than I did," he admitted.   
  
Willow enveloped his hand in hers. "It wasn't your fault Xander," she said quietly. "She was just tired."  
  
"I know. But it still wasn't easy to watch."  
  
Buffy was 42 years old when she died for the last time -- older than any Slayer in history -- and she didn't die in a fiery apocalyptic battle, but at the fangs of a single vampire. Looking back on that night, Xander should have known it would be her last patrol. She'd been withdrawn ever since Dawn had moved to LA. Without that last link to family, the slaying had become mechanical. Anya and Spike were long dead, and she'd taken to keeping on eye on Xander and his family, but the passion was gone. She'd been ready for death for a while, and, when her chance came, she'd embraced it.   
  
"And what about Laurie?" she asked. "How have you been handling that?"  
  
Xander's face darkened. "I lost them both in the same night, Will," he said, his voice cracking. "I never should have gone with Buffy. She was ready to die. Laurie wasn't."  
  
What could Willow say to that? "Sucks about Buffy and your wife getting drained in the same night. By the way, your daughter's a Slayer"?  
  
Instead, she sipped her latte and collected her thoughts. Xander went on to tell her about the night his life fell apart.  
  
The vampires in Sunnydale hadn't gotten any meaner – just more organized. They were preying on local high school and college kids, people at the Bronze – anywhere people congregated, and they'd grown frighteningly efficient. Often, the vampires were gone before Buffy and Xander could even get a glimpse of them.   
  
They'd gone out that night on a lead from a vampire informant, but that lead turned into a trap when a vampire showed up at Xander's home, conned its way inside and drained his wife of every last drop. It had clearly been a setup designed to hurt the Slayer and her sidekick. After watching Buffy surrender to death, he'd come home to find his wife's lifeless body on the living room floor and his teenage daughter shaking in a closet. And if it hadn't been for Hannah, he would have followed Laurie and Buffy into whatever awaited.   
  
Xander finished his story, but he refused to look at Willow. The compassion in her eyes was more than he could take, and the last thing he wanted was to start bawling like a little girl in the middle of Starbucks.   
  
Willow grasped both his hands in hers and tried to rub warmth into his callused skin.   
  
"Xander, I'm not here on a vacation," she said softly.   
  
"I figured as much," he replied. "I mean, I know I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but Watchers don't often quit their posts to be math teachers."  
  
"I have something to tell you. Look at me."  
  
When Xander continued to evade her gaze, she gripped his chin in her hand and forced him to lock eyes with her.  
  
"I said look at me," she said, this time more forcefully. "I'm here for Hannah. She's been called as the next Slayer."  
  
He stared at her blankly, and then stood up, ignoring his unfinished coffee.  
  
"Christ, Will, I don't want to hear this!" The emotion in his voice was raw, and the patrons around them stopped what they were doing to stare. He stormed out the door and into the warm, evening air, and Willow followed him on a seemingly random path through Sunnydale.   
  
"I don't want this either," Willow said, her voice rising as her legs pumped to keep up with him.  
  
"Then don't do this. Don't do this to my---"  
  
"It's not my choice!" Willow cried. "The Powers That Be do what they want. I'm just here to train her. What can I do?"  
  
"You can walk away. Go back to England and leave Hannah alone." Xander ignored the traffic lights, hurrying through a sea of blaring horns and middle fingers, and Willow cast some subtle spells to keep them both from becoming roadkill.   
  
"If I walk away, it won't change her destiny as the Slayer. It will just leave her defenseless against what's out there. The evil will find her, Xander! It always does."  
  
With that, he stopped to catch his breath.   
  
"I can't lose, her, Will."  
  
"I know," Willow answered, hoping like hell that her voice sounded soothing. "That's why I'm here. To make sure she breaks Buffy's record as the oldest Slayer who ever lived."  
  
She was relieved when Xander smiled. It was forced, but it was something. Now she had to make good on her promise, because if she didn't turn that withdrawn, timid girl into a sleek slaying machine, Xander would never forgive her. 


	2. Chapter 2

Hellmouth Revisited  
Rating: R  
Spoilers: To be on the safe side, if you don't want to be spoiled, don't read this if you're not current on Buffy.   
Summary: Willow, now a Watcher, returns to Sunnydale 20 years after the end of the series to train the new Slayer. She has to contend with a familiar evil set on destroying the town – and what life has become for the people she left behind.   
Disclaimer: The characters from "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" aren't mine. They belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy, who do a much better job with them than I ever could. Hannah and the other non-Buffy characters ARE mine, and I get to do with them as I please.  
Notes: This takes place 20 years after the season 7 finale. I don't know how the season is going to end – it's just conjecture.   
  
  
Willow had prepared herself for any number of reactions: from disbelief, to anger, to fear. But she wasn't prepared for the 15-year-old girl to break into hysterical giggles.   
  
When the laughter subsided, Hannah wiped her eyes and looked at Willow as if she'd just morphed into a two-headed gnome.   
  
"You can't be serious," the girl said, pacing back and forth in front of the couch where Willow was sitting. They were in Buffy's house -- Xander's house, now -- and the moonlight filtered though the windows and across the black leather couch.   
  
"I am serious," Willow insisted. "I know it's hard to believe, but you have some serious destiny in store, and we need to make plans."  
  
"Plans?" Hannah asked, suddenly serious. "What kinds of plans?"  
  
"Well, we have to begin a training schedule, and I have to show you how to patrol. From what I hear, the baddies on the Hellmouth are getting a little too comfortable with no Slayer in sight."  
  
Hannah sat beside Willow tentatively. "You don't understand," she said. "I can't be a Slayer. I can't fight vampires."  
  
"Look, I understand you're---"  
  
"No!" Hannah interrupted. "You don't get it. I'm a wuss. I get my ass kicked regularly at school. I'd be an embarrassment to Slayers everywhere. They'd put my picture in the Slayer hall of shame, and vampires would practice throwing stakes at my head."  
  
As Willow listened to the tirade, she tried to follow Giles's advice -- to listen to the words behind the words. She didn't need magick to know that Hannah wasn't saying something, and she knew what that something was.   
  
"You couldn't save your mother, so you're afraid you won't be a good Slayer," she said.   
  
The girl's face froze, and she pulled her arms across her chest.   
"Maybe. If I were really qualified to follow in Aunt Buffy's footsteps, I would have dusted that bloodsucker before he ever set foot in our house." Her words were tough, but her voice was small.   
  
"You weren't a Slayer then," Willow countered. "You were just an ordinary girl witnessing her mother's murder. You have abilities now that you can use to help others. The Powers That Be know what they're doing when they bestow those abilities. They wouldn't give them to someone unworthy."  
  
"I don't care what these so-called Powers want," Hannah said defiantly. Then her tone softened.   
  
"Willow, I'm sorry you came all this way for nothing, but you'll have to tell the Watchers that I don't want any part of it." She bolted from the couch and ran up the stairs. Willow got up to follow, but Xander's voice stopped her.   
  
"I was afraid that might happen," he said.   
  
She turned to him and raised an eyebrow. "Were you eavesdropping that whole time?" she asked.   
  
"Can't help myself. I'm a busybody."  
  
"She's very stubborn. Just like her father."  
  
"I'm not stubborn. I just have a well-defined personality." Willow saw a glimmer of the old Xander charm flash in his eyes, and then it was gone.   
  
"She blames herself for what happened to Laurie," he said.  
  
"But it's not her fault that vampire got in the house," she protested.  
  
"Well, it sort of is," he said. He took a deep breath and explained what had happened.   
  
The night Laurie died, Hannah had opened the door to a stranger in a hard hat and overalls who claimed to be a member of Xander's crew. When the stranger asked if he could wait for Xander to return, Hannah invited him in. The stranger wasted no time in turning Laurie into a human slushee, and, when it was over, he left Hannah with a message: "Tell the Slayer there's a new vamp queen in town, and she's not fucking around." Buffy never returned that night, but Hannah passed the message onto her father – once she was able to put coherent words together.   
  
Willow allowed herself to sink back down to the couch. "Poor kid. She didn't know."  
  
"I told her not to blame herself, but she remembers all the times I told her not to invite strangers into the house, so she blames herself anyway." He sat next to her, his hands between his knees. Willow rubbed his back gently.  
  
"I'm so sorry, Xander. This must be so hard on the two of you."  
  
He said, "You have no idea. I hate seeing her so unhappy. I would do anything to take it away." There was a pause. "You don't know what it's like to be a parent. To see your child in so much pain and to be helpless to do anything about it."  
  
The corners of Willow's mouth quirked up.   
  
"What?" Xander asked.  
  
"Nothing. It's just…I've never seen this paternal side of you before. It's really…sweet."  
  
He tried to return her smile, but he couldn't manage the effort.   
  
"I'm going to bed," he said. He climbed the stairs as if he were walking the green mile, and Willow sighed. She had her work cut out for her. 


	3. Chapter 3

Hellmouth Revisited  
Rating: R  
Spoilers: To be on the safe side, if you don't want to be spoiled, don't read this if you're not current on Buffy.   
Summary: Willow, now a Watcher, returns to Sunnydale 20 years after the end of the series to train the new Slayer. She has to contend with a familiar evil set on destroying the town – and what life has become for the people she left behind.   
Disclaimer: The characters from "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" aren't mine. They belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy, who do a much better job with them than I ever could. Hannah and the other non-Buffy characters ARE mine, and I get to do with them as I please.  
Notes: This takes place 20 years after the season 7 finale. I don't know how the season is going to end – it's just conjecture.   
  
Willow tried to keep things normal in class, but normal for Hannah was sulking in a corner, and Willow's patience was wearing thin. It wasn't that she didn't have sympathy for the girl, but she knew how vital it was to begin the training. It was only a matter of time before something profoundly evil spawned out of the Hellmouth -- if it hadn't already -- and the entire town would be caught with its collective panties down without an active Slayer.   
  
Willow knocked on the door of the principal's office, and she heard a muffled voice on the other end tell her to enter. When she opened the door, she was greeted by an attractive, middle-aged black man in a navy blue suit who stood up to shake her hand. She tried to ignore the heebie jeebies she was getting from standing directly over the Hellmouth, and she wondered how the principal could stand to spend so much time in this room.   
  
"Miss Rosenberg," he said, "a pleasure to meet you, finally. You came highly recommended. I'm sorry I didn't get to conduct your interview personally." Willow shook his hand, wracking her brain to figure out why he seemed so familiar.   
  
"Please, call me Willow," she said. Panic began to set in when she couldn't remember his name. She'd spent so much time preparing for Hannah that she had neglected to brush up on her Sunnydale High cast of characters. She made a mental note to rectify that problem when she got back to her apartment.   
  
"I'm Principal Wood," he offered graciously, smiling to reveal a row of perfect white teeth. Now Willow remembered. He had been the principal when the high school reopened. She had to give him credit: Not only had he survived 20 years with his office directly over the Hellmouth, but he was still a hottie. She reminded herself that she was a lesbian.   
  
"So, what can I do for you?" he asked.   
  
"I wanted to ask you about a student of mine – Hannah Harris. She's in my honors math class, and I noticed that she's pretty anti-social." Willow had hoped the faculty could tell her more about Hannah -- give her information that would help her make progress with her reluctant charge. She was confident that Xander had told her everything he could, but parents weren't always privy to all the details of their children's lives. Hell, as a young woman she'd spent an entire summer in England after nearly destroying the world, and her own parents had thought she was busy with summer classes.   
  
Principal Wood rocked back on his heels and said, "Only your second day on the job and already you're taking an interest in student welfare. I think you're going to fit in well here, Willow."  
  
She felt the heat spread across her cheeks and blend with her hairline. She was interested mainly in the welfare of one student, really, but if he wanted to believe that she was Sidney Poitier, that was fine with her.   
  
"Do you know anything about her?" she asked.   
  
"She's always been a quiet kid. Polite. She hasn't said much to anybody since her mother died. She was out of school for a couple of weeks, and when she came back, she was wound up tighter than a jack-in-the-box."  
  
"Any friends?"  
  
"She's never been popular, but she had a few close friends from what I saw. She alienated them rather thoroughly after the murder."   
  
Willow got the names of Hannah's former friends and thanked Wood for his help. As she walked through the hallway on her way to the cafeteria, she pondered how she was going to hook Hannah back up with her friends. Part of the reason Buffy had survived so long was because she was the ass-kickingest Slayer who ever lived. The other part was because she had friends to watch her back. Hannah would need that same kind of support.   
* * *  
  
The cafeteria was crowded by the time Willow got there. Freshman lunch had just begun, and she spotted Hannah on line for food. She was talking to a blond-haired boy standing behind her, and Willow nodded in approval. At least she wasn't brooding in a corner, she thought. The boy laughed at something Hannah said as they inched their way up the line, and another girl swooped in from another line, hands on her hips and her face contorted in rage.   
  
"Who said you could talk to my man, bitch?!" the girl screamed. Hannah looked stunned and didn't respond. The boy slinked backward, looking as if he were trying to get out of firing range of an out-of-control missile launcher. The girl grabbed Hannah by her collar and shook her.   
  
"Are you retarded?!" the girl screamed. "Answer me."   
  
Willow's grown-up instincts told her to break up the fight before anyone got hurt, but her Watcher training kept her in check. She knew Hannah would never be able to battle the undead if she couldn't handle a snot-nosed prom queen. Still, her own torment at the lips of Cordelia Chase gave her sympathy pains.   
  
The girl grabbed Hannah by her bun and slammed her face into the counter. A crowd of students gathered around, and someone started up the obligatory "fight, fight" chant until the whole cafeteria was chanting in unison. Willow snorted in disgust. What a bunch of sheep.   
  
The girl pushed Hannah to the ground and started slapping her and clawing at her with her bright red nails. Willow felt her pity turn to rage. Why didn't Hannah fight back? She had the strength of a Slayer, for crying out loud. But it didn't take super strength to deal with little miss super bitch. A good, swift kick to the stomach would do the job.   
  
The one-sided fight went on for a few moments longer before Willow felt something inside Hannah finally begin to stir. She grabbed the other girl by the neck and quickly turned her over so that Hannah had the leverage advantage, and the girl was pinned on her back. Hannah punched the girl in the stomach, and she doubled over in a fit of breathless coughing. Another girl stepped into the fray and tried to pull Hannah up by her hair, but Hannah yanked the girl by the arm and, with one fluid movement, tossed her across the cafeteria and into a Plexiglas window. The chanting stopped, and everyone stared at Hannah, who seemed to be stunned by her own strength. The girl beneath her moved as if to throw a punch, but Hannah glared at her, daring her to try it, and the girl kept still. Hannah got up and brushed herself off.   
  
"Any other takers?" she asked.   
  
The room was silent, except for the groaning of the girl who had gone airborne. Willow stepped into the semicircle that had formed around them and ordered the kids to disperse. They did so reluctantly, going back to their unfinished lunches and conversations.   
  
Willow helped super bitch off the floor and sent her to the nurse. As she limped away, Willow couldn't help herself from casting a little spell. Hannah noticed and quirked an eyebrow.   
  
"Nothing disastrous," Willow promised. "But she's going to wake up with the worst case of acne she's ever had in her life." She was sure Giles would be disappointed in her, but she'd feel bad later.   
Hannah grinned and wiped an errant strand of hair from her eyes. "I really kicked their asses didn't I?" she said.   
  
"Yeah, you did. Can I come by your house later so we can talk more?"  
  
Hannah thought about it for a moment, and then nodded. "Sure. What the hell."  
  
She walked away, and Willow felt an involuntary flood of relief. Maybe this was the break she'd been looking for, and maybe she'd be an okay Watcher after all. 


	4. Chapter 4

Hellmouth Revisited  
Rating: R  
Spoilers: To be on the safe side, if you don't want to be spoiled, don't read this if you're not current on Buffy.   
Summary: Willow, now a Watcher, returns to Sunnydale 20 years after the end of the series to train the new Slayer. She has to contend with a familiar evil set on destroying the town – and what life has become for the people she left behind.   
Disclaimer: The characters from "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" aren't mine. They belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy, who do a much better job with them than I ever could. Hannah and the other non-Buffy characters ARE mine, and I get to do with them as I please.  
Notes: This takes place 20 years after the season 7 finale. I don't know how the season is going to end – it's just conjecture.   
  
  
The last time Willow had visited Buffy's grave, it was to resurrect her friend from the dead. This time, she simply placed a few stones on the granite slab and kneeled down to read the lettering. It had Buffy's name, the dates of her birth and death, and the words, "SHE SAVED THE WORLD – A LOT. THEN SHE CAME BACK AND DID IT SOME MORE."   
  
The late afternoon sun was bright overhead, but Willow's hands were cold.   
  
"Buffy, I miss you so much," she said softly. A gentle breeze rustled the grass beneath her feet, but there was no response. Not like she expected one, but anything was possible in Sunnydale.   
  
So much had changed since she'd left Sunnydale to be a Watcher. Her old friends were married, or dead, or living different lives somewhere else. The kids who hung out at the Bronze looked impossibly young. Too young to be facing the evil that was a regular guest in the town where she'd grown up. Willow allowed herself a moment of surrender to the rising anger in her chest. Why did the Powers need children to sacrifice everything that made them beautiful? Why did they have to suck out the joy from people like Buffy and Xander, who had spent their lives fighting the good fight? And why did she have to be in Sunnydale helping to suck the life from an innocent girl?   
  
Willow knew the answers to her own questions. People like Buffy and Hannah were sacrificed so the rest of the world could live. That was the official Watcher explanation, but it still blew.   
  
"So, what's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?" Xander asked, stepping up beside her.  
  
"You're good at sneaking up on me," she said, glancing at him from the corner of her eye.   
  
"Nah, you just zone out a lot." He was right, so she didn't argue the point.   
  
"The world doesn't seem right without Buffy in it," Willow whispered.   
  
"Tell me about it. The vampires don't run like they used to when they see me coming. I'm more like Xander, the vampire annoyer."  
  
Willow worried about Xander, not for the first time. He'd been devastated by Anya's death when they were younger, and she knew he felt the loss of his wife deeply, but without Buffy, he was just lost. She stood up and took his hand in hers.  
  
"It'll be OK, Xander. You have a lot to teach Hannah," she said.   
  
"What could she learn from an old guy like me?" he asked.   
  
"How 'bout the joys of yellow crayons?" The comment was supposed to be flip, but it brought back bittersweet memories for both of them.  
  
"Xander, you have to snap out of it," she said sternly. "Hannah needs you. I need you."  
  
"You don't need me. You're a Watcher and a mega witch. You have the support of the council behind you."  
  
"I don't need the council," she insisted. "I need my friends." She stepped away a few feet and folded her arms across her chest. "I'm not like Giles," she told him. "I don't command instant respect, and I can't train a Slayer all by myself."   
  
There, she'd said it. She hadn't revealed her insecurities to anyone on the council -- not even Giles. It had seemed so silly, so unprofessional – so Willow Rosenberg, teenage nerd. She'd thought Xander would try to cheer her up, but he just smiled thinly.   
  
"Thank God," he said, shoving his hands into his pockets.   
  
"What?"  
  
"Thank God," he repeated. "I thought I was the only one wigging out like a weenie."  
  
"I'm a weenie?"  
  
"Hardcore."  
  
"And that's OK with you?"  
  
"It's never been a problem before."  
  
Willow kissed him on the forehead. "Come on," she said. "I want to say hi to Tara before I teach your little girl how to kick some ass."  
  
* * *  
  
Three hours later, Willow and Hannah were in the basement of Xander's house, and Willow was showing the girl the finer points of stake wielding as Xander watched from the sidelines.  
  
"I still don't think this is such a great idea," Hannah complained. "Just 'cause I whooped some girls in the cafeteria doesn't mean I can take on the entire undead population of Sunnydale."  
  
"Less talk, more footwork," Willow commanded.   
  
Hannah moved across the floor in the pattern her Watcher had shown her, swinging the stake through the air at different angles at various imaginary attackers. She was a bit clumsy in the execution, but grace would come in time, and her tall, wiry body contained a natural athleticism that Willow knew would serve her well. With time, concentration, and hard work, she could be a Slayer in word and in reality.   
  
"You're a natural," Willow said.  
  
Xander said, "She gets it from me. You know, the whole lean, mean fighting machine thing."  
  
"Yeah, dad, that's why you freaked when that stray cat jumped out of the pantry last month."  
  
Xander feigned hurt. "Hey, I'm quite the hero," he said. "Did I ever tell you how I saved the world with my mouth?"  
  
"A hundred times."  
  
"Oh….Well, then, I'm going to go upstairs and let you two do whatever it is Slayers and Watchers do. I think there's a Dodgers game on TV." He left, closing the door softly behind him, and Willow turned her attention back to Hannah, who was now balancing on one foot a la The Karate Kid.   
  
"Good," Willow said. "Now don't move for 15 minutes."  
  
"You can't be serious. I can't stay like this for 15 minutes."  
  
"Yes, you can. And stop telling me you can't do things, 'cause I'm only gonna make you do them anyway."  
  
A few minutes passed, and Hannah found herself growing bored with the silence.   
  
"So, did you really try to destroy the world?" she asked.   
  
Willow had come to terms with that part of her life many years ago, but thinking about it still made her uneasy.   
  
"Yes. But your father convinced me that it was a bad idea."  
  
"I thought my dad made that story up."  
  
"Nope, it's true," Willow confirmed. "You father is a good man."  
  
"Yeah, he's not so bad," Hannah said. Willow imagined that was the best kind of praise a parent could expect from a teenager. "He's been weird since mom and Aunt Buffy died, but he tries hard."  
  
Willow was surprised that Hannah had opened the door to that particular topic, but she decided to jump through it while it was open.  
  
"It sounds as if your parents loved each other very much," Willow said. She couldn't imagine Xander loving anyone the way he'd loved Anya, but time was funny that way.   
  
"Sort of," Hannah said. She teetered off balance, and then righted herself. "They weren't all icky like you see in the movies, but they got along real well. Sometimes I think they were just really good friends who decided to get married and have a kid. Dad blames himself for not leaving when she wanted to."  
  
"Excuse me?" Willow asked. Xander hadn't mentioned this part.   
  
"About a year ago, Mom wanted to leave Sunnydale. She was tired of all the creepy things that kept happening, and she was mad at dad for always being out at night. Dad said he couldn't leave Aunt Buffy all by herself. Mom wasn't happy, but she knew what they did was important, so she shut up about it. Now Dad's sorry they didn't go. Stupid Dawn." She muttered the last part under her breath so softly that Willow almost didn't hear it.   
  
"What about Dawn?" she asked.   
  
"Nothing. Forget I said it."  
  
"No, really, please tell me," Willow pleaded.   
  
Hannah sighed and put both feet on the floor, abandoning the exercise.   
"If Dawn hadn't left, Dad wouldn't have had to tie himself to Aunt Buffy. She was stupid and selfish."  
  
Moments ago, Hannah had been speaking with extraordinary maturity, but her tone had changed to that of a hurt, angry child.   
  
"Don't be too hard on Dawn," Willow told her. "She must have had her reasons."  
  
"Yeah, her reason was that she wanted to take the easy way out." Hannah plopped herself on the staircase, and Willow settled next to her.  
  
"I left Sunnydale," Willow reminded her, "not because it was the easy way out but because it was the right thing to do."  
  
"But—"  
  
"No buts," Willow interrupted. "Just listen. Dawn always had a hard time living in her sister's shadow. It must have been difficult being nearly 35 and still the Slayer's little sister. Buffy was the most amazing person I've ever known, but she tended to suck up all the light in the room. I left because I wanted a world of my own."  
  
"I though we were talking about Dawn."  
  
"We-we are," Willow stuttered. Had she really started talking about herself? What kind of example was she setting for Hannah when she couldn't even focus on a conversation?  
  
Hannah put her hand on Willow's knee and pushed herself off the stairs. "Look, I'm kinda tired. Could we quit for tonight?"  
  
Willow nodded. "Sure. But be back here tomorrow, same bat time, same bat channel."  
  
Hannah looked at her quizzically. "You say the strangest things, but you're not so bad."  
  
"Not so bad" were the words she'd used to describe her father, and Willow felt her face flush.   
  
"Thanks for trusting me," she said.   
  
"My dad trusts you, so I trust you," Hannah replied. She let the door slam behind her, leaving Willow alone in the semidarkness.   
  
Looking around the basement, Willow could feel Buffy everywhere. In the floors, in the ceiling, in the weaponry on the walls. For so long, Willow's world had been intertwined with that of the Slayer. They'd fought side by side, but there had been no doubt that Buffy was the heroine. Buffy had been so arrogant and self-righteous sometimes, but Willow supposed that came with the territory. After all, it was hard to be humble when your job description said "Chosen One."   
  
So much of the Scooby Gang's history vibrated in these walls. Late-night research sessions. Xander and Anya's engagement party. Joyce's death. Tara's death -- events that had faded in her memory but still hummed in the floorboards and light fixtures and whispered in her ear when she was quiet.   
  
One of the swords on the wall caught her attention, and she stepped closer to examine it. The blade was long and thin, and Celtic knotwork adorned the handle. It was the sword Buffy had wielded during the last battle they'd fought together – the last apocalypse, when Sunnydale had almost been devoured by the Hellmouth. The battle had taken so many lives – Spike, Anya, even Faith, who had come back to prove she was worthy of her title. Soon after the battle, Willow had accepted the Watchers' invitation. Her friends hadn't been happy, but they'd understood. Willow wondered briefly what her life would have been like if she'd stayed, but that line of thinking was pointless. There were too many variables.   
  
She lifted the sword from its place of honor on the wall and turned it in her hands. It was heavier than it looked.   
  
"Buffy," she said, talking to the sword, "you once told me that you had strength to spare. I could use some of it now." She heard nothing but water running through the pipes. Someone upstairs was taking a shower.   
  
Willow pondered taking the sword but decided against it. It was Hannah's now, and Willow decided that she would always be part of the Slayer's world, and that wasn't so bad. 


	5. Chapter 5

Hellmouth Revisited  
Rating: R  
Spoilers: To be on the safe side, if you don't want to be spoiled, don't read this if you're not current on Buffy.   
Summary: Willow, now a Watcher, returns to Sunnydale 20 years after the end of the series to train the new Slayer. She has to contend with a familiar evil set on destroying the town – and what life has become for the people she left behind.   
Disclaimer: The characters from "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" aren't mine. They belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy, who do a much better job with them than I ever could. Hannah and the other non-Buffy characters ARE mine, and I get to do with them as I please.  
Notes: This takes place 20 years after the season 7 finale. I don't know how the season is going to end – it's just conjecture.   
  
  
"Oh my God," Hannah said, her face wrinkled in disgust. "That is the most revolting thing I've ever seen."  
  
Willow peered over her shoulder to see what the fuss was about and immediately pulled away from the stench. Nothing in her 20-plus years on the Hellmouth could have prepared her for the monstrous, gelatinous mass in the middle of Xander's kitchen.   
  
"You can't possibly be serious about eating that," she said, feeling like an overprotective mom.  
  
"What?" he asked, mumbling around a mouthful of food. "It's good."  
  
As fascinating as it was to watch Xander eat a Jell-O, cream cheese and bologna sandwich on rye, Willow decided that patrolling for ghoulies would be less of a strain.   
  
"Come on," she said to Hannah. "Slayer's first patrol. We don't want to keep the vamps waiting."  
  
"How do I look?"  
  
"Like a force to be reckoned with. Right, Xander?"  
  
Xander's mouth was full, so he settled for a vigorous nod as he swallowed his food.   
  
Willow looked Hannah up and down and was pleased with what she saw. Her hair, as usual, was pulled into a tight bun behind her head, and several stakes were carefully concealed up her sleeves and in her black, steel-tipped boots. The black-leather bodysuit was a striking contrast to her conservative school clothes, and Xander had initially refused to let her leave the house, but Willow convinced him that, if it made his daughter more confident, it was a good thing. Willow wore blue jeans and a gray sweater and kept her own shoulder-length red/gray hair pulled back into a ponytail.   
  
"We'll be out late," Hannah said. "Don't wait up." She headed toward the door, and Xander, following her with his eyes but speaking to Willow, whispered, "Keep an eye on her."  
  
"That's why I'm here," she whispered back. "Don't worry. She can handle it."  
  
Willow followed the new Slayer toward the door, and Xander yelled behind them, "Watch out for zombies. And pimps."   
  
When the door slammed shut behind them, Xander sighed deeply. He'd never sleep again.   
  
  
* * *  
  
  
"I have seen the face of evil, and it is my father's digestive track," Hannah said as they began their second tour through the cemetery.   
  
The first cold autumn night had fallen on Sunnydale, and Hannah was seriously wishing she hadn't gone for the spy girl look. She had to consciously keep her teeth from chattering as goose bumps crawled up her arms and thighs. Next time, it would definitely be wool socks and jeans.   
  
Willow, in her down parka, walked comfortably beside her.   
  
"Focus on your senses," Willow ordered. "This place is crawling with vampires."  
  
"I don't see any," Hannah protested.   
  
"I can feel them everywhere. In time, you'll be able to feel them, too."  
  
As if on cue, a large, male body fell from a tree in the front of them. He landed on his feet, towering over Willow and Hannah.   
  
"Mmmmm," the vampire said, licking his lips. "Late supper."  
  
Hannah, Willow, and the vampire circled each other for a few seconds, scoping each other out. This was it, Willow thought. Hannah's first vampire. She stepped back and let the girl get her bearings, ready to step in if things got out of control.   
  
The vamp launched, and Hannah neatly sidestepped it. He rolled over and sprung back to his feet, and she white-knuckled the stake in her hand.   
  
"This will be much easier on both of us if you don't move around so much," he said in a low, gravely voice. Hannah was silent, paying close attention to his movements. Willow couldn't help thinking that Buffy would have had a clever quip at the ready. But that was okay. Hannah didn't need to be witty -- she just needed to be quick.   
  
The vampire attacked again, launching a leg into Hannah's stomach, and the girl staggered backward. She doubled over, breathless, but she managed to regain her composure before fending off another assault.   
  
The fight went on this way for several more minutes, with neither gaining the upper hand, and Willow was growing frustrated. Hannah was ignoring opportune moments to stake the thing, backing off when she could have easily gone for the kill.   
  
Hannah landed a brutal kick, and the vampire flew through the air and into a tree.   
  
"Now, Hannah!" Willow screamed. "Stake him now!"  
  
The girl was about to plunge her stake into its heart, when her hand stopped, hovering six inches from her target.  
  
"What are you waiting for?" Willow asked, her voice tight. A single vampire didn't seem like much of a threat after all she'd lived through, but she knew that it only took one to make you dead -- or worse.   
  
Willow looked from Hannah to the vampire, wondering what the hell was going on and if she should jump into the fray. Hannah was frozen, her face ashen. The vampire, with its demon face bared, lunged toward Hannah, and Willow reacted.   
  
"Away!" she yelled, thrusting her palms toward the vampire. It went airborne again, this time landing 30 feet away on the roof of one of the tombs.   
  
"Snap out of it!" Willow ordered the girl, who was on her knees and nearly catatonic. She didn't respond, and Willow shook her violently by the shoulders.   
  
"This is for real! Wake up!"  
  
"I…I can't do this," Hannah whispered hoarsely. "I'm not a Slayer…not the one…please don't make me do this." Tears moistened the edges of her eyes, and her whole body shook.   
  
"Freak out later," Willow said, trying to sound authoritative. "Right now, you're going to die if you don't kill that vampire."  
  
Sure enough, the vampire was coming back for more. This time, his focus was on Willow. Yellow eyes burning, he took several long, confident strides toward her. Willow ran through her options. She could kill this vamp easily -- she knew a few spells that would rip its head off or blow it apart or cause any number of horrible deaths -- but this wasn't her battle. She wasn't the Slayer, and she was afraid that if she took up the slack, Hannah would never fight them herself.   
  
"Hannah," Willow said, talking to the girl but never taking her eyes off the vampire. "It wasn't your fault. You can't bring her back." Hannah looked at her numbly, and Willow continued.   
  
"But I'm not going to fight this vampire. If you do nothing now, I'll die, and so will you. Then it WILL be your fault."  
  
The vampire licked its lips again. "You shouldn't take scared little girls into graveyards late at night," he said menacingly.   
  
"And you shouldn't be…ummm…undead, so I guess we're even," Willow shot back. She cringed. Not exactly a Buffy-caliber quip, but it beat sheer panic. Would Hannah call her bluff? She couldn't tear her eyes away to check.   
  
He tackled her at the waist, forcing her to the ground. She fought him off as best she could without magic, but her physical strength was no match for his superhuman ability. He looked at her and grinned, and Willow felt a creeping terror she hadn't felt since the last time she was about to be eaten alive. The vamp bared its fangs, and, as he was about to plunge them into her neck, he exploded, leaving Willow covered in a thick film of dust. Hannah stood over her, stake in hand, and Willow laughed.   
  
"This isn't funny," Hannah complained, helping her off the ground. "You were nearly killed."  
  
"I know. That's why I'm laughing. I'm still alive."  
  
"Were you really going to let that thing kill you just to teach me a lesson?"  
  
Willow looked thoughtful for a moment. "That's one of the advantages of being a Watcher," she said. "I don't have to answer questions like that."   
  
A few more seconds of silence passed, and the stake slipped from the girl's hand.   
  
"I'm so sorry," she said softly. The tears that had pooled in her eyes flowed freely down her nose and dripped from her chin.  
  
"It's just…." She trailed off.   
  
"It's just what?" Willow prodded.  
  
"When that thing vamped out, it was happening all over again. And I was helpless all over again. It nearly got you killed."  
  
Willow frowned. "Understandable. Just don't let it happen again."  
  
Hannah's eyes grew wide. "It won't, because I'm never slaying another vampire." She turned to walk away, but Willow caught her by the shoulder.  
  
"I don't claim to be all wise and all-knowing," Willow said, "but the most important thing I've learned in my life is that shit happens."  
  
Hannah pulled back. She'd never heard Willow curse before.   
  
"Yeah, shit happens," she said again. "We go crazy, we mourn, we move on. Now you have to pull it together, too." Hannah looked uncertain.   
  
"Hey, you owe me. What do you say?"  
  
"I can't make any promises about the future."  
  
"No promises necessary. Just give it your best shot."  
  
Hannah rewarded her with a half smile and turned to leave.   
  
"Wait, you forgot your stake," she said. She leaned over to pick up the sharp piece of wood from where Hannah had dropped it, and her fingers brushed across something hard that glinted in the moonlight. Picking it up, she saw that it was an aquamarine pendent set in a gold setting, sitting on a gold chain with the clasp still intact.   
  
"Hey, check this out," she said, holding the pendant up to eye level. "Fang boy must have dropped it when you dropped him."  
  
Hannah took the pendant, and Willow noticed her face go gray again as she cupped it in her palm.  
  
"It's my mom's," she explained. "How did he get it?"  
  
"Are you sure?" Willow asked. "Maybe it just looks like hers."  
  
"No, it's hers. Aquamarine is her birthstone. Dad gave it to her last year. It even has her birth date on the back."  
  
Willow took the pendant, and, sure enough, it had "3/8/1980" etched in the gold backing.   
  
"What does this mean?" Hannah asked. "How did that bastard get my mother's pendant?" Her voice was thin, and Willow worried that she would snap again.   
  
"I don't know," Willow answered. "But I promise we'll find out. Trust me?"  
  
Hannah nodded, and the two walked back to the house. Both their lives had just gotten a lot more complicated. 


	6. Chapter 6

Hellmouth Revisited  
Rating: R  
Spoilers: To be on the safe side, if you don't want to be spoiled, don't read this if you're not current on Buffy.   
Summary: Willow, now a Watcher, returns to Sunnydale 20 years after the end of the series to train the new Slayer. She has to contend with a familiar evil set on destroying the town – and what life has become for the people she left behind.   
Disclaimer: The characters from "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" aren't mine. They belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy, who do a much better job with them than I ever could. Hannah and the other non-Buffy characters ARE mine, and I get to do with them as I please.  
Notes: This takes place 20 years after the season 7 finale. I don't know how the season is going to end – it's just conjecture.   
  
  
"You don't have to come with, you know," Willow told Xander for the fourth time that evening. Xander gave her the "don't screw with me" look he'd given her the three times before, and she shrugged her shoulders.   
  
"I'm just saying that it's probably nothing. The vampire that killed her probably took it from the house."  
  
"No."  
  
"How can you be so sure?"  
  
"She wasn't wearing it the night she died. I tucked it into her hand right before they closed the casket."  
  
Willow and Xander were silent for the rest of the ride. Willow had finally managed to get Hannah and her friends back on hanging-out terms, and the three kids had gone to the movies. Willow wasn't sure the girl could handle the messier aspects of slaying just yet, and she hadn't wanted to let her in on her worst fears. Xander, who wasn't so easily dissuaded, had insisted on coming along.   
  
Night had fallen, and Willow and Xander pulled themselves over the chain-link fence that separated Sunnydale Cemetery from uptown. They landed on the ground with a soft thud, and she gave him a chance to catch his breath.   
  
"That was a whole lot easier when I was 21," he said.   
  
Willow pointed out, "Everything's easier when you're 21."  
  
"Not for you. You're more powerful now than you were 20 years ago, as freaky as that is."  
  
They made their way through the moonlit cemetery, keeping an eye out for vampires and other nasties. When they finally got to Laurie's grave, Willow pressed her palm into the cool, damp earth, and Xander knelt down beside her, watching her every facial expression.   
  
"Anything?" he asked.   
  
"The grave has been disturbed, but I can't tell if it's because someone mowed the grass or…something else."  
  
"Let's find out."  
  
Willow followed him as he backtracked to the car to get the shovels. Xander was prepared to climb over the fence again with the shovels in hand, when Willow cut a hole in the chains with a thin magical beam that shot from her fingertips.   
  
"If you could do that, why the hell didn't you do it the first time?" Xander asked.   
  
"Just wanted to see if you still had it in you," she said, smirking. Xander wrinkled his nose at her and walked through the now-gaping hole in the fence.   
  
"Xander, you really don't need to do this," she said again. Digging up his wife's grave in the middle of the night would do nothing to improve his mood, and she wished for the umpteenth time that he'd stayed home.   
  
"Willow, shut up."  
  
"I was just—"  
  
"I mean it. Shut up. You're my best friend in the whole world, but my wife is buried down there – or not. And I have to find out, so just start digging and stop treating me like I'm a friggin' crystal vase. Okay?"  
  
" 'Kay," she said, stunned. That was as passionate as Xander had been since their argument in Starbucks.   
  
It took more than an hour to reach the casket, but they were lucky. The ground hadn't frozen yet.   
  
When they were greeted by the sound of metal on metal, Xander tossed the shovel aside and brushed off the remaining dirt with his hands. He unlocked the casket, lifted the cover, and peered inside.   
  
"Nightmare confirmed," he said. "Nobody's home."  
  
They allowed the sounds of night to fill the gap between them. Then Willow tugged at his sleeve.   
  
"Come on. We'd better get going before somebody sees us."  
  
He followed her out of the grave, and, after refilling the hole, they went back to the car, where they spent the first few minutes of the ride back staring at the open road.   
  
"We have to tell Hannah, you know that, right?" She peeked at him from behind the wheel. She'd expected an argument, which was why she was surprised when he nodded.  
  
"I can't let her stake her own mother, Will."   
  
"I know. That's why I'm going to take care of it."  
  
"I thought you said she had to do these things on her own."  
  
"This is different. This is the kind of thing that could ruin her life. There'll be plenty of other vampires and plenty of other hard choices to make."  
  
When they walked through the door, Hannah was in her pajamas in front of the TV.   
  
"So, how was your night out?" Willow asked.   
  
"Great. Like old times. You know, before I turned into a total jerk." She looked them up and down. "You guys are filthy. What were you doing? Gravedigging?"  
  
They stopped cold and looked at each other.   
  
"You were, weren't you?" She jumped from the couch, her good mood evaporating. "What did you find?"  
  
Willow nodded to Xander, and he looked at the floor before facing his daughter.   
  
"Her grave is empty," he said. "The vampire that killed her that night turned her." Hannah sat back down slowly.   
  
"It's my fault," he said. "I knew better, but I didn't even think about the possibility."   
  
Willow felt bad for interrupting what was obviously a difficult moment for Xander and his daughter, but her concerns couldn't wait.   
  
"You don't think…Buffy?" she asked, not able to form a coherent sentence around the thought.  
  
"No," he said with certainty.   
  
"You're sure?"  
  
Hannah said, "Aunt Buffy was cremated. Dad didn't want to take the chance that some demon thingy would desecrate her body. We buried the urn in the cemetery."  
  
Willow breathed a sigh of relief, andthe three of them spent the next hour arguing over what to do next. Xander wanted to pack a stake and find her himself, while Willow wanted to focus on the vampire queen they'd heard about. It went back and forth, until Hannah spoke up.   
  
"She'll come to us," she said during a break in the argument.   
  
"What?" Willow said.   
  
"She'll come to us," she repeated. "We killed her sire."  
  
"How do you know that?"   
  
"Remember when we were fighting that vampire in the cemetery?" Willow nodded.   
  
"That was the guy in the hat who showed up that night. He killed mom. I didn't realize it until I was about to stake him the first time."   
  
"Coincidence how you just ran into him in the cemetery," Xander said.   
  
"Yeah, coincidence, that."  
  
"We can't just sit around and wait for her pay us a visit."   
  
"I'll take care of it," Willow assured them.  
  
"No." Hannah's voice was soft but strong. "No offense, Willow, but she's not your mom. Besides, I'm not a complete vampire virgin. I did grow up with Dad and Aunt Buffy. I know the thing walking around in Mom's body isn't really her."  
  
Willow, Xander and Hannah argued the point a bit more, but the young Slayer's mind was set.   
  
"Tomorrow's Friday. Saturday I'll get up early and track her down." She left no room for argument, and Willow went to sleep that night with visions of vampires and bloodshed dancing in her head. 


	7. Chapter 7

Hellmouth Revisited  
Rating: R  
Spoilers: To be on the safe side, if you don't want to be spoiled, don't read this if you're not current on Buffy.   
Summary: Willow, now a Watcher, returns to Sunnydale 20 years after the end of the series to train the new Slayer. She has to contend with a familiar evil set on destroying the town – and what life has become for the people she left behind.   
Disclaimer: The characters from "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" aren't mine. They belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy, who do a much better job with them than I ever could. Hannah and the other non-Buffy characters ARE mine, and I get to do with them as I please.  
Notes: This takes place 20 years after the season 7 finale. I don't know how the season is going to end – it's just conjecture.   
  
  
  
The next day was a beautifully clear, crisp autumn day, and Willow thought it was unfair that such a day could exist in the midst of such chaos. She struggled to stay focused on quadratic equations and cosines until the 3 o'clock bell rang and she could finally release her mind to other matters.   
  
She let herself into Xander's house with a key he'd given her and tossed her bag onto the table.   
  
"Xander, I'm here." The house was quiet except for the tick-tock of the grandfather clock near the door. She wandered through the rooms, calling Xander's name, but stopped when she found an envelope taped to Hannah's bedroom door. She opened the letter, and her mouth dropped open involuntarily at its contents.   
  
As she reread the letter, anger and fear fought for control of the facial contortions that dominated her face.   
  
Stupid, Xander, she thought. Stupid, stupid, stupid. What the hell were you thinking?  
  
There was no time to wait for Hannah to get home from school. She had to find Xander before he got himself killed. Then she was going to kill him herself.   
  
* * *  
Xander hadn't expected to find her so quickly. He hadn't expected to be captured so quickly, either, but his main concern was the bared fangs that hovered inches from his neck.   
  
After Hannah had left for school, he'd gone out with the intention of finding Laurie and dealing with her. If anyone was going to kill his wife, it would be him, as twisted as that sounded in his own head. He'd tried the local demon bars and the Bronze, but they were mostly empty. Only the hardcore drunks frequented those places during the day, but they'd given him a tip that Laurie might be living at the high school. He hadn't been in the basement ten minutes when something clocked him over the head. He couldn't tell how much time had passed -- only that his head throbbed and he was chained to a wall.   
  
"Welcome home, baby," said a smooth female voice. Xander looked up and wasn't surprised to see Laurie. He hadn't expected anyone else, really. Still, he couldn't control the tightness that gripped his chest and throat. Everything about her was familiar – from the long, frizzy brown hair that framed her high cheekbones to the scar above her left eye from where the bookshelf had nailed her in the face. The one thing that was unfamiliar was the coldness in her eyes, and Xander reminded himself that the Laurie he knew was dead.   
  
"I knew you'd find me eventually," she said, retracting her fangs. She ran a fingernail down his face, and he shivered. In vampire terms it probably would have been considered an erotic gesture, but the utter deadness of it left him numb.   
  
When he didn't respond, she knelt down in front of him.   
  
"I know why you're here," she said. "You thought you would kill me so the Slayer doesn't have to." The startled expression in his eyes betrayed the truth, and she laughed.   
  
"Just think of it: My little baby, a big, bag vampire slayer. Draining her is going to be so much fun."  
  
"Don't do this," Xander pleaded. "She was your child."  
  
"And she will be again. Don't worry your pretty little head about it." His eyes went vacant, and she patted him on the cheek.  
  
"Don't worry, baby, we'll all be a family again. Once Hannah gets here, I'll make you more powerful than you could possibly imagine."  
  
She walked away, leaving him alone in the bowels of the high school, and it was all Xander could do not to cry. He'd been stupid thinking he was the hero when, in fact, he had always been just a sidekick. Now his dead wife was going to use him as bait to lure his daughter to her own death. He clasped his hands together and did the only thing he could think of: pray. He'd never been a religious man, but now he prayed that whatever god had put him in this life would show some mercy – and keep him from losing what little he had left. 


	8. Chapter 8

Hellmouth Revisited  
Rating: R  
Spoilers: To be on the safe side, if you don't want to be spoiled, don't read this if you're not current on Buffy.   
Summary: Willow, now a Watcher, returns to Sunnydale 20 years after the end of the series to train the new Slayer. She has to contend with a familiar evil set on destroying the town – and what life has become for the people she left behind.   
Disclaimer: The characters from "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" aren't mine. They belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy, who do a much better job with them than I ever could. Hannah and the other non-Buffy characters ARE mine, and I get to do with them as I please.  
Notes: This takes place 20 years after the season 7 finale. I don't know how the season is going to end – it's just conjecture.   
  
As the sun dipped lower over the horizon, Willow's panic peaked. Xander had been gone all afternoon -- possibly all morning, for all she knew -- and there was no sign of him. Her attempt at a locator spell had come up empty, too. A few drunks at the demon bars and the Bronze had seen him, and one of them suggested she try the high school. She got to the school just as the sun was setting, and only a few scattered lights remained on inside the building.   
  
Relief made her eyes tear as she stepped into the basement and felt waves of Xander all around her. He was terrified and angry, but he was alive.   
  
"Xander!" she called out. There was no answer except for her voice echoing off the walls. Step by step, she made her way to the center of the basement, trying not to jump at the sounds of rats scurrying across the floor.   
  
"Xander!" she yelled again. This time she heard a muffled noise coming from a room just ahead. She hurried her pace and busted through the door to see Xander chained to the wall and a tall, brown-haired woman standing next to him with her arms folded across her chest.   
  
"Laurie," Willow said softly, recognizing her from the photos that adorned Xander's walls.   
  
"The one and only," Laurie said. Her face was unreadable.   
  
"I'm here for Xander," she said. "Let him go." Willow quickly took in the details of her surroundings. The only way out was the way she'd come in, and Xander didn't look as if he would be much help.   
  
"You're not the one I was waiting for, but Watchers make nice appetizers, or so I hear." Laurie pounced, and Willow found herself pressed against a wall, facing down another set of fangs.   
  
Willow shouted, "Dust!" and pressed her palms into the vampire's chest. Nothing happened, and she tried it again, with the same result, and Laurie's yellow eyes twinkled.   
  
"Silly witch. Didn't anyone ever tell you your stupid spells won't work this close to the Hellmouth?"  
  
Dizziness overwhelmed Willow's fear as Laurie sank her fangs into her neck. She felt as if she could float away, someplace warm, where Xander wasn't screaming something incomprehensible and waves of nausea didn't grip her body. Suddenly, just as Willow resigned herself to her fate, Laurie released her, letting her drop to the floor. It took a few seconds for Willow to realize that Xander had broken free from his chains and tackled Laurie from behind. Willow drew herself unsteadily to her feet, and the three formed a triangle in the tiny, forgotten room of the basement.   
  
"Damn it, Xander," Laurie said with disgust, "you are such a pain in the ass. None of this would be necessary if the Watcher had just let Kyle take Hannah in the cemetery like we'd planned."  
  
So, that explained that particular bizarre coincidence. But there was still more Willow needed to know.   
  
"Why send Kyle? Why not do it yourself?"   
  
"A certain person didn't quite trust me not to turn her on the spot. I just want my daughter."  
  
"Here she is," said a voice from the doorway. They turned to see Hannah leaning against the frame.   
  
"Baby," Laurie purred sweetly. "I knew you'd find your way here."  
  
"How did you find us?" Xander asked.   
  
"I cruised the demon bars and the Bronze. I don't know why, but they all laughed when I said I was looking for you two."  
  
Laurie's tone shifted from sweetness to menacing, and she said, "Now that you're here, we can get this over with." She took a long stride toward Hannah.   
  
"Don't you want to be with Mommy?"  
  
Uncertainty danced in the girl's eyes. "I don't want to be a vampire, but we can help you."  
  
Willow felt her stomach drop, but she wasn't sure whether it was from the blood loss or the knowledge that Hannah was waffling.   
  
"There are spells," Hannah started. "Spells that can give vampires back their souls, spells that can bring the dead back to life."  
  
"Of course," Laurie said agreeably. "I'd like that."  
  
Now she was standing less than a foot away from Hannah, who made no move to stop her mother from playing with a strand of hair that had escaped from her bun.   
  
"Mom, I've missed you so much. It's been terrible without you."  
  
That was enough, Willow thought. She had to stop this. She snuck quietly behind the vampire, keeping her stake hidden up her sleeve. Xander watched her silently. He knew what was coming, but the thought of stopping her never crossed his mind.   
  
Laurie wrapped her arms around her daughter, and the girl fell into her mother's embrace – for a second. Then a cloud of dust exploded around them and drifted to the floor.   
  
Hannah spent a few stunned moments staring at the dust on her shoes before turning her attention to Willow.   
  
"You're an animal," she said in a low, dangerous voice.   
  
"She was a vampire, Hannah. You know that. Be reasonable."  
  
"There were options. There have been vampires with souls. You brought Aunt Buffy back from the dead once."  
  
"That was different," Willow tried to explain. "Laurie didn't---"  
  
"She didn't mean a damn thing to you, so it didn't matter!" Hannah shouted. She ran out of the room, leaving Willow and Xander with nothing but her echo. Willow took a step to follow her, but Xander blocked her.   
  
"I'll go," he said. "Are you gonna be okay getting back by yourself?" She nodded, and Xander took off after his daughter, leaving Willow to wonder what the hell she'd done wrong. 


	9. Chapter 9

Hellmouth Revisited  
Rating: R  
Spoilers: To be on the safe side, if you don't want to be spoiled, don't read this if you're not current on Buffy.   
Summary: Willow, now a Watcher, returns to Sunnydale 20 years after the end of the series to train the new Slayer. She has to contend with a familiar evil set on destroying the town – and what life has become for the people she left behind.   
Disclaimer: The characters from "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" aren't mine. They belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy, who do a much better job with them than I ever could. Hannah and the other non-Buffy characters ARE mine, and I get to do with them as I please.  
Notes: This takes place 20 years after the season 7 finale. I don't know how the season is going to end – it's just conjecture.   
  
"I was afraid you weren't coming back," Xander said as Willow shut the door gently behind her. He was in a pair of flannel pajamas in front of the muted TV, and Hannah was nowhere in sight.   
  
"Is she okay?" Willow asked.   
  
"Not so much," Xander admitted. "But she's quiet now. I think she cried herself to sleep."  
  
Willow felt like crap. She'd made a 15-year-old girl cry. But she reminded herself that it was better than letting her charge get turned into a cocktail.   
  
Willow dumped an armload of books and a single scroll on the coffee table in front of him.   
  
"What've you got there, Watcher lady?"  
  
"A whole lot of trouble."  
  
She'd taken a look around the basement and found the stash in a small, closet-like room adjacent to the one where Xander had been held. Among other things, it contained a tiny library of metaphysical books -- some detailing ancient blood rituals and others detailing the end of days, when demons and hell gods would devour all humans and make the earth their playground. The usual.   
  
"Sounds like freaky fun," Xander commented. "What's this?" He tapped his finger on a yellow parchment scroll on top of the books.   
  
"That," Willow said, "is a mystery." The scroll was written in what she recognized to be Sanskrit, but she'd wanted to get it back to the house to translate it.   
  
"Time to get all researchy," she said, throwing herself onto the couch and cracking open the scroll.   
  
"Why don't you start in the morning?" he suggested. "You almost got eaten tonight."  
  
"It wouldn't be the first time."  
  
"Seriously, Will. This can wait until morning."  
  
Willow shook her head. She was tired, and her neck ached, and she wanted to crawl into a hole and hibernate until spring, but something nagged at her to keep working. Apocalyptic scrolls tucked away in vampire lairs tended to be significant, and she needed to do something to redeem this horrible night.   
  
When it became clear she intended to work through the night, he capitulated and got them both steaming mugs of hot cocoa. She took it gratefully and warmed her lips against the escaping steam.   
  
"You surprised me tonight," Willow said.   
  
"I know. It was stupid of me to go out alone."  
  
"No, no, I mean, you not trying to stop me from staking Laurie. The Xander I used to know would have moved the world to keep me from doing something like that."  
  
He shrugged his shoulders. "That Xander got old, I guess."  
  
There was a long pause, and Willow's eyes softened.   
  
"I'm really sorry, Xander. What happened tonight…really sucked."  
  
"It's okay."  
  
She squinted, regarding him intently.  
  
"So, it's not okay," he admitted. "But I started grieving for Laurie months ago, and I'm not going to start all over again."  
  
Willow took a deep swig of her beverage, marveling at how much her friend had changed over the years. Part of her respected his maturity, while the other part of her mourned the young man who'd worn his heart on his sleeve for the world to see.   
  
"Hannah hates me," she said, changing the subject.   
  
"I think she'll come around. I had a long talk with her when we got home." He had resumed the fight Willow and Hannah had started in the basement. The girl accused him of not caring about Laurie enough to stop Willow from staking her and of being out of touch with what was happening, at which point Xander nearly lost his mind. He would allow himself to be torn apart by hungry lions for her, but he'd be damned if he was going to let a teenager tell him that he didn't care enough – or that he didn't understand the darkness in the world around them. He understood all too well – had seen every one of his friends succumb to it – and felt as if he was on a first name basis with it. The fight led to a fair amount of door slamming and some weepiness on both their parts, but Xander was confident that his daughter understood that the battle lines had been drawn.   
  
"She knows you're not the enemy," he told Willow, draining the last of the chocolate in his mug. "I explained that it's us against them, and that all we have is each others. I think she understands."  
  
"She claimed to understand that the demon in Laurie's body wasn't really her mother," Willow said, not quite able out keep the bitterness out of her voice.   
  
"Theory is easy. Practice is hard."  
  
Willow finished the last of her own hot chocolate and placed the empty cup on the floor.   
  
"Time to get to work," she said, flipping open her translation book.   
  
Xander took that as his cue to get some sleep. He'd never been much of a fan of dead languages, but Willow threw herself into the work. Her relationship with her Slayer was less than she'd hoped for, but the scroll beckoned to her sleepy eyes and heavy heart. 


	10. Chapter 10

Hellmouth Revisited  
Rating: R  
Spoilers: To be on the safe side, if you don't want to be spoiled, don't read this if you're not current on Buffy.   
Summary: Willow, now a Watcher, returns to Sunnydale 20 years after the end of the series to train the new Slayer. She has to contend with a familiar evil set on destroying the town – and what life has become for the people she left behind.   
Disclaimer: The characters from "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" aren't mine. They belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy, who do a much better job with them than I ever could. Hannah and the other non-Buffy characters ARE mine, and I get to do with them as I please.  
Notes: This takes place 20 years after the season 7 finale. I don't know how the season is going to end – it's just conjecture.   
  
  
Willow spent the next three weeks training Hannah by day and translating the scroll by night while the girl conducted her own patrols, and she wasn't sure which was more taxing. Hannah was quiet and distant, but dedicated to her work. Willow was grateful for that much, and for the fact that, if things couldn't be friendly, at least they were civil.   
  
The scroll had proven to be trickier than she'd anticipated. The language was obscure, even by Sanskrit standards, and after hours of poring over books and translation charts, she had to admit that the scroll was beyond her.   
  
Xander flipped idly through one of the books, tracing the letters with his finger.   
  
"What if this is some cosmic Chinese food menu?" he asked when her face scrunched up into a scowl.   
  
"It's not Chinese," she said, sighing. "I've got most of it, but this last part is impossible."   
  
"Well, what have you got so far?"  
  
Willow gave him a quick summary of the scroll's contents. Like most ancient, cryptic scrolls, it discussed the end of the world. The heavens would boil, raining blood onto the scorched earth, demons would feast on the innards of children, and lovers would turn on each other as the night swallowed the day.  
  
"All this feasting is making me hungry," Xander said, interrupting.   
  
"Do you want to hear this or not?" Willow asked. Her patience was at a premium.   
  
"Please, by all means."  
She went on to tell him about the worst part of the prophesy -- the part that talked about how the hellfire would commence on the next full moon.  
  
"Six days?" Xander asked. "That doesn't give us much time."  
  
"I know, which is why this last part is pissing me off."  
  
"Which part is that?"  
  
Willow pointed to the last three lines of the scroll. "Here. I'm sure this part talks about how the apocalypse is going to start, but I can't decipher it. It's like reading…well, it's like reading Sanskrit."  
  
"There's always the great English hope," Xander suggested.   
  
Willow sighed again. She hadn't wanted to ask the semi-retired Watcher for help, but the truth was that he was much better at this stuff than she was. She was sure the Council had recruited her for her magical skills, not her translation skills.  
  
"I guess you're right. When all else fails, it's Giles."  
  
* * *  
  
Hannah walked quickly and carefully through the cemetery, her stake in hand and her senses on full alert. She'd staked 13-1/2 vampires since becoming a Slayer (the half coming when a vamp tripped and staked himself on a tree branch), and she was beginning to feel a rush of adrenaline at the mere thought of slaying. Would it always be like this, she wondered? Feeling her chest thump with power at the thrill of the hunt? At that moment, all she knew for sure was that the hunt would be a lot quieter if she didn't have two clumsy teenagers beside her, snapping twigs and crunching dead leaves as they struggled to keep up.  
  
"I don't want to hurt your feelings, but this would be a lot easier if you guys didn't come along," she said.   
  
The girl next to her looked up, brushing her blonde bangs out of her eyes. "Are you serious? I wouldn't miss this for all the green Jell-O in the cafeteria. I still can't believe you're the Slayer."  
  
"Don't tell the whole world about it, okay? It's supposed to be a secret. I only told you because you're my best friends."  
  
The stocky, brown-haired boy next to her pushed his glasses up his face. "Everybody knew Buffy was the Slayer."  
  
Hannah stopped in her tracks, and the others stopped short.   
"Really?" Hannah asked. "Everyone?"  
  
The boy nodded. "Everyone who was paying attention. It was the worst-kept secret in Sunnydale."  
  
She turned to the girl, who nodded in confirmation. "Okay, fine," Hannah said. "Just keep it quiet as long as possible." She continued walking, and Hannah told them about the events that had transpired since Willow showed up at Sunnydale High.  
  
During a pause in the conversation, the boy spoke again. "My mom says your Watcher is a bitch."  
  
"Your mom's still bitter about spending prom night in a hamster cage, so her opinion doesn't count."  
  
"Hey, watch it. I—"  
  
"Sshhh!" she whispered loudly, clamping a hand over his mouth. "Hear that?"  
  
The three if them stood perfectly still, listening to the sounds of the cemetery: wind clacking the tree branches together, a dog barking -- and a low growl as something sprung from behind a tomb and knocked Hannah to the ground. The other kids took refuge behind a large headstone, peeking around the sides to get a glimpse of the action.   
  
Hannah rolled head first and sprang back to her feet, catching the vampire in her stomach and sending her staggering backward. A blur of fists and feet sent Slayer and vamp into a frenzy of Jackie Chan-ness. The vampire was startlingly quick for her size, but, of course, they all were. She punched Hannah in the jaw, sending her head whipping around and bringing tears to her eyes.   
  
"You'll never be as good as the real Slayer," the vampire taunted.   
  
"Remember that in your next life as fertilizer," she replied. Hannah's face was passive as she swung the stake down from above her left shoulder and plunged it into the vampire's heart, sending her on her way. She took a moment to catch her breath and rub her stinging cheek as her friends climbed out from their hiding spot.   
  
"Wow," the boy said, staring at the pile of dust already starting to dissipate in the wind. "That was amazing."  
  
"Yeah," the girl chimed in. "You could get your own movie or something: 'Hannah the Vampire Slayer.'"  
  
"Don't be stupid," Hannah admonished. "Who would watch that?"  
  
The kids doubled back the way they came. Hannah had promised she'd be back home in time to get six hours sleep before school the next day. 


	11. Chapter 11

Hellmouth Revisited  
Rating: R  
Spoilers: To be on the safe side, if you don't want to be spoiled, don't read this if you're not current on Buffy.   
Summary: Willow, now a Watcher, returns to Sunnydale 20 years after the end of the series to train the new Slayer. She has to contend with a familiar evil set on destroying the town – and what life has become for the people she left behind.   
Disclaimer: The characters from "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" aren't mine. They belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy, who do a much better job with them than I ever could. Hannah and the other non-Buffy characters ARE mine, and I get to do with them as I please.  
Notes: This takes place 20 years after the season 7 finale. I don't know how the season is going to end – it's just conjecture.   
  
  
"Giles, please tell me you have something," Willow pleaded, staring at a face as haggard as her own on the computer monitor in the den.   
  
"I have something," he assured her, "but you're not going to like it. I certainly don't."   
  
Giles went on to tell her about the last three lines of the prophesy, which talked about the blood sacrifice necessary to crack open the gates of hell.   
  
"So, what kind of blood sacrifice are we talking about?" Xander asked, moving his head into the Webcam's line of vision. "A pig? A goat? A screaming virgin?"   
  
Giles pursed his lips. "The prophesies call for the blood of the Slayer."  
  
Great, Willow thought. Her first apocalypse as a Watcher called for her Slayer to bring forth the end times. She watched Xander's face turn crimson beneath his five o'clock shadow.   
  
"What the hell is this?!" he yelled, pacing back and forth across the room. "Why can't these scrolls ever be ancient chain letters or recipes for salsa?"  
  
Willow turned her gaze from Xander back to the screen. Something in the way Giles held his eyes told her it was about to get worse.   
  
"There's more, isn't there?" she asked.   
  
Giles nodded slowly. "The prophesy says that the blood of the Slayer combined with the blood of the Key will unleash a force more powerful than even the First Evil."  
  
"The Key? As in THE Key?"  
Giles nodded again. "I suggest you make an effort to track down Dawn before it's too late."  
  
Xander stopped pacing long enough to rejoin the conversation. "She mentioned she was going back to LA. I'll start there." Willow nodded her approval, and he left the room.   
  
"Now that he's gone," Giles said, "there's something else I would like to address."  
  
Willow swallowed hard. She'd known this was coming.  
  
"The Council is concerned by your relationship with Xander and Hannah. They feel that you're too close to them to be objective about your duties."  
  
"They knew I was Xander's friend when they assigned Hannah to me. Why the cold feet now?"  
  
"They assigned Hannah to you because you know more about the inner workings of Sunnydale than anyone else. And because I have indelicate photos of several Council members."  
  
Willow's eyes narrowed. She could never tell when he was joking.   
  
"Seriously, Willow, I'm not trying to make your job more difficult. I'm just warning you that they have their doubts. They feel that your loyalty to the new Slayer outweighs your loyalty to them."  
  
"Of course it does!" Willow exclaimed. "She's the reason the Council exists!"  
  
Giles started to say something, but Willow continued before he could interrupt.   
  
"My responsibility is to Hannah, not the Council, because she's what stands between this world and a whole lot of darkness. I would feel the same about any Slayer, and I would take on the entire Council if I had to in her defense. I think they need to remember what their job is."  
  
Willow ended her tirade, taking a deep breath, and Giles smiled.   
  
"I wouldn't have it any other way," he assured her.   
  
Willow accepted his words for what they were -- a warning from one friend to another -- and allowed herself to exhale. Why did the Council have to be made up of so many wankers? More importantly, why did the word wanker even pop into her head?  
  
"Remember one more thing," Giles continued. "If Dawn is involved, you may not be dealing with the Dawn you know. All that mystical power was never meant to be incarnated for so long. She seemed to be doing fine, but if it she has become tainted…"  
  
"I know, Giles. I'll be careful."  
  
She wrapped up their conversation, turned off Xander's computer, and got up to leave. She was surprised to see Hannah leaning against the doorway, her arms folded across her chest.   
  
"How much of that did you hear?" Willow asked.   
  
"Pretty much all of it."   
  
They stared at each other awkwardly for a few moments, and then Hannah broke the silence.   
  
"That was really cool, what you said. You know, about being on my side."  
  
"I meant it."  
  
"I know." She unfolded her arms and crossed the room to stand in front of Willow, standing about an inch taller than the Watcher.   
  
"My dad tried to tell me you were one of the good guys, but I was stuck in this whole me, me, me thing, and I didn't see it. Thank you for being here, even when I'm a bitch."  
  
Willow felt her insides get warm, and something maternal stirred toward the girl. She wondered if this was how Giles had felt about Buffy. She hated to break the moment to tell Hannah the news, but everyone needed to be up-to-date about the latest doom-and-gloom prophesy.   
  
Hannah's face remained remarkably unchanged as Willow told her about Giles's findings.   
  
"So, does this mean I'm going to die?" she asked.   
  
"Absolutely not," Willow assured her. "I've lived though a half a dozen or so of these things, and they just mean that something nasty is coming. But prophesies can always be altered."  
  
"What now?" Hannah asked.   
  
"Your father is looking for Dawn, and I'm going to do a locater spell to see if I can find this new Big Bad."  
  
"What about me?"  
  
"Right now you're going to bed, because you have school tomorrow. But keep your eyes open when you're on patrol. Some of the vamps might be chatty."  
  
As Willow drifted off to sleep, she thought about the prophesy that was five days away from becoming reality. Finding Dawn was the priority, but she took a few minutes to bask in the glow of her new relationship with Hannah. Even Xander seemed to have a purpose that had eluded him since Buffy's death. If they could avoid becoming mystic bug splatters, life would be good. 


	12. Chapter 12

Hellmouth Revisited  
Rating: R (Warning: This chapter contains graphic violence.)  
Spoilers: To be on the safe side, if you don't want to be spoiled, don't read this if you're not current on Buffy.   
Summary: Willow, now a Watcher, returns to Sunnydale 20 years after the end of the series to train the new Slayer. She has to contend with a familiar evil set on destroying the town – and what life has become for the people she left behind.   
Disclaimer: The characters from "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" aren't mine. They belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy, who do a much better job with them than I ever could. Hannah and the other non-Buffy characters ARE mine, and I get to do with them as I please.  
Notes: This takes place 20 years after the season 7 finale. I don't know how the season is going to end – it's just conjecture.   
  
  
"Any luck finding Dawn?" Willow kept stride with Xander as they walked from the school to the parking lot, hoping that his day had been more productive than hers. During her free period she'd found a quiet spot in the park to do a locator spell, but she'd come up empty -- again. In fact, the spell had refused to acknowledge any demonic activity in Sunnydale whatsoever. Of course, if the Big Bad was hanging out in the basement, she could forget most of her spells.   
  
"Nothing you're gonna like," Xander replied. "Her friends haven't heard from her in months, and her landlord says she broke her lease in March. I even called Angel. He looked into it, and he couldn't find anything."  
  
At the mention of Angel, Willow's eyes lit up. There was another name she hadn't heard in ages -- except in reference to one prophesy or another.   
  
"How's is he?" she asked.   
  
"Still dead."  
  
They reached Willow's car, and Xander suddenly began to fidget.   
  
"What?" she asked.  
  
"We've never actually seen this 'vamp queen,' ya know. You don't think it could be Dawn, do you?"  
  
The thought had occurred to her, and she was embarrassed that she hadn't been able to say it out loud.   
  
"God, I hope not. I don't even want to think about it."  
  
"Yeah, neither do--"  
  
Xander's words got cut off by the whine of several police sirens. They turned to see four patrol cars pull into the parking lot, and eight of Sunnydale's finest ran into the building. Willow raised an eyebrow as if to say, what now?  
  
Wordlessly, they backtracked into the school, where at least 50 students had gathered in the lobby. Principal Wood and two cops were practicing crowd control. Xander tapped a tall, jock-like boy on the shoulder and asked him what happened.   
  
"I hear some girls got whacked in the bathroom. Real blood and guts kind of stuff." He seemed almost giddy, and Xander reigned in the impulse to dope smack him.   
  
Willow got Xander's attention over the chattering students. "I have to find out what happened. I'll meet you back at the house." They broke off, and Willow made her way through the mass of teenagers to the front of the herd, where two officers were placing yellow police tape across the hallway, blocking her entrance to the bathroom.   
  
"I'm a teacher here," she told one of the policemen. "I need to get by."  
  
He replied, "And I'm a cop here, and I need to keep you on that side of the line. Sorry. Them's the rules."  
  
Willow slinked back into the crowd and considered her options. No one in the crowd seemed to be paying attention to her. She could easily make herself invisible and sneak across the police tape.   
  
Invisible Willow gently lifted the tape and crawled under, stopping only when the cop who had denied her passage stared at the tape rising by itself. He turned away, and she scrambled past him and into the bathroom.   
  
The smell hit her first. The combination of blood and terror never failed to make her stomach churn. Two police officers walked around the bathroom, taking pictures and collecting evidence, but her eyes were locked on what was left of the two teenage girls hanging from the stalls by their hair.   
  
Their faces had been chewed off, leaving nothing but muscle and bone. Blood annihilated whatever color their clothes had been, and their skirts, pulled up around their waists, revealed blood running from between their legs and onto the cold, gray tile. Their bloody corpses reflected in the mirror on the opposite side of the room, which revealed, scrawled in bloody letters, one word: "Soon."  
  
Every instinct in Willow's body told her to run, to teleport out -- to do whatever she had to do to get out of a hell where children were raped and mutilated and left for dead by something so demented that it made the word evil seem quaint. She forced herself to memorize the details of the scene, and then worked her way around the police officers and into the blessed fresh air of the parking lot.   
  
  
  
* * *  
  
Xander crawled up onto the roof and cringed at the bloody sight before him. One of his men was minus a head and dangling, prone, off the side like an abandoned rag doll. Blood was splattered everywhere, and the body was still warm.   
  
He shouted down the ladder, "Did anyone see his head?" When he got no response, he peeked over the side. The two crewmen who had shown him the body had disappeared.   
  
Figures, Xander thought. Point out the bloody corpse and then take off. He turned around quickly and nearly fell off the roof when he saw the man's head on a pole, unseeing eyes opened wide in his bald head. Above it, the word "Soon" was painted in blood.   
  
"Sorry, Miguel," he said to the head. A cold wind whipped through Xander's body as he made his way back down the ladder and into the high school.   
  
  
* * *  
  
Hannah stepped quietly though the dank basement, repressing the fear that pounded in her ears. She'd heard the description of the dead girls in the bathroom from Mandy, the now-shell-shocked girl in the guidance counselor's office, and her first thought was to investigate the basement. According to Willow and her father, most of the evil things in Sunnydale could be traced to the high school basement, but it was difficult to investigate fully when the walls seemed to shift around her.   
  
A whisper caught her attention, and she stopped to listen, but it disappeared like a fading ripple in a pond. She continued, and she heard it again. This time, she could make out words.   
  
"Don't cry, don't cry, baby Slayer's gonna die."  
  
The words repeated over and over, forming an overlapping singsong whisper that grew in volume and intensity with each passing second. It went from creepy to unbearable as the twisted lullaby seeped into her pores and clawed at her from the inside. Hannah clamped her hands over her ears and fell to her knees.   
  
"Stop it!" she screamed.   
  
"Don't cry, don't cry, baby Slayer's gonna die. Don't cry, don't cry, baby Slayer's gonna die. Don't cry—"  
"Stop it! Stop it!"  
  
The song felt like something physical scraping against her brain. She dug her nails into her scalp and raked them down her face, tracing a bloody trail down her cheeks. Finally, when she couldn't take it anymore, a white light exploded inside her head, and she slumped to the floor, unconscious. 


	13. Chapter 13

Hellmouth Revisited  
Rating: R  
Spoilers: To be on the safe side, if you don't want to be spoiled, don't read this if you're not current on Buffy.   
Summary: Willow, now a Watcher, returns to Sunnydale 20 years after the end of the series to train the new Slayer. She has to contend with a familiar evil set on destroying the town – and what life has become for the people she left behind.   
Disclaimer: The characters from "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" aren't mine. They belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy, who do a much better job with them than I ever could. Hannah and the other non-Buffy characters ARE mine, and I get to do with them as I please.  
Notes: This takes place 20 years after the season 7 finale. I don't know how the season is going to end – it's just conjecture.   
  
  
The sun had set when the sound of a slamming door interrupted Xander's determined pacing. Hannah threw herself onto the couch and pulled into the fetal position.   
  
"Where the hell have you been?" Xander asked. "I've been worried sick. And what happened to your face?"  
  
"I've been a little sick myself," she answered. She pulled a pillow to her chest, and Xander sat down beside her.   
  
"Are you OK? I couldn't find you. Willow couldn't find you. I thought—"  
  
"I'm fine, dad. Where's Willow?"  
  
"I'm right here," said a drowsy voice from the hallway.   
  
The three exchanged stories, and Willow's features settled into a deep frown.   
  
"This is getting serious," she said. "Whatever's out there is stepping up the violence."   
  
Hannah released her grip on the pillow and shifted into a cross-legged position on the couch.   
  
"What the hell could do what happened in the bathroom?" she asked. "It doesn't seem like a vampire's style."  
  
"Rilok demon," Willow offered. The others gave her their attention, waiting for more.   
  
"It fits their MO. Mutilation, beheading, sexual violence. They're front-runners, you could say. They follow whatever force has the most power in any given area."  
  
"And our vamp queen is the big dog?" Xander asked.   
  
"It would seem so."  
  
Hannah tossed the pillow aside and pushed herself off the couch. "We keep saying 'vamp queen' like we don't know who it is."   
  
"We're not sure it's Dawn," Willow protested.   
  
"Yes, we are. I know it's Dawn, and so do you."  
  
"Can you prove it?"  
  
"Of course I can! She was inside my fucking head!"  
  
Xander was so surprised that he didn't even discipline her for cursing. Now Hannah had their undivided attention.   
  
"When I was on my knees, trying to block out the song, I could feel her all around me and inside me! So don't tell me I don't have any proof."  
  
Xander and Willow exchanged glances, and Xander placed a hand on his daughter's shoulder.   
  
"Do you know what she wants?" he asked.   
  
"No. Only that she's really pissed."  
  
Willow asked, "I wonder why she let you go. I mean, she needs your blood to kick-start the next apocalypse."  
  
"She was just screwing with me. Proving that she had the power."  
  
The three of them bounced around ideas for finding Dawn, but, in the end, none of them knew how to go about finding a super-charged vampire who didn't want to be found. They eventually settled on Willow's wait-and-see method. The prophesy was very clear -- it had to happen on the last full moon of the year, and Dawn couldn't put her plan into motion without Hannah's blood. So all they had to do was keep Hannah alive past the full moon. It seemed easy enough, but they all knew better. 


	14. Chapter 14

Hellmouth Revisited Rating: R Spoilers: To be on the safe side, if you don't want to be spoiled, don't read this if you're not current on Buffy. Summary: Willow, now a Watcher, returns to Sunnydale 20 years after the end of the series to train the new Slayer. She has to contend with a familiar evil set on destroying the town - and what life has become for the people she left behind. Disclaimer: The characters from "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" aren't mine. They belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy, who do a much better job with them than I ever could. Hannah and the other non-Buffy characters ARE mine, and I get to do with them as I please. Notes: This takes place 20 years after the season 7 finale. I don't know how the season is going to end - it's just conjecture.  
  
Hannah stayed home from school for the next four days and tried not to be annoyed by Xander's and Willow's constant hovering. There was little to do except surf between music videos and the Learning Channel. Hannah muted a documentary on marsupial procreation and flipped the remote across the room in disgust. At least there hadn't been any more reports of gruesome murders. Xander looked at her sympathetically.  
  
"I know the bug-nuts feeling," he said. "Why don't you call Rachel and Frankie and ask them if they want to keep you company?"  
  
Hannah shook her head. Her friends had been cool about finding out she was the Slayer, but she didn't want them around in case anything bad really did go down.  
  
"This is stupid," she complained. "I shouldn't be in here hiding. I should be on patrol."  
  
"We already talked about this." Several times a day, in fact. "When we get through the night, the prophesy will be averted, and we can go out and find her."  
  
"I know, but what kind of Slayer--"  
  
She was cut off by the sound of Willow barreling down the stairs.  
  
"I've got it!" she yelled. "I found Dawn!"  
  
"Where is she?" Hannah and Xander asked at the same time.  
  
"Right here. In this house. We have to go." She grabbed both of them by the arm and steered them toward the front door despite their protests, but when the got there, they bounced off of a magical forcefield.  
  
"Willow, what's going on?" Hannah asked, abandoning all pretense of sounding cool.  
  
"I almost didn't bother doing a locater spell, since all my others have failed. But then I got the idea to do one for Buffy. After all, the monks made Dawn from Buffy. That was the trick. I got two hits: one at the cemetery and one somewhere in this house. Which is why we have to get you out of here." She tossed a heavy paperweight at the window, and it bounced back, flying across the room and missing Xander's head by inches.  
  
"She won't let us leave," Hannah said, her words heavy.  
  
Three loud thumps rattled the windows, and a cloaked, hooded figure materialized in the living room.  
  
"At least someone around here isn't completely stupid," said a feminine voice from beneath the cloak. She lifted the hood.  
  
It was Dawn.  
  
Willow wasn't entirely surprised to see her, but the sight of Buffy's younger sister still made her breath hitch. Her mousy brown hair was still long, and the blend of youthfulness and rage in her face was unsettling.  
  
Willow asked, "How did you get in here? No one invited you in. Did they?" She looked at Xander and Hannah, who shook their heads.  
  
"Only vampires need invites," Dawn explained with a sneer. "Didn't they teach you that in Watcher school?"  
  
"But."  
  
"But, you though 'vamp queen' meant I was a vampire. No, honey, it just means that I rule the vampires. I give them orders. They carry them out. I'm still quite alive."  
  
The confusion made the space between Willow's eyes hurt, but she didn't dare shift her attention off of Dawn.  
  
"It's kind of funny, actually," Dawn continued. "I was hiding out in the dark, damp Sunnydale High basement until a few days ago, when I realized I could hide out right under your noses without you realizing it."  
  
Xander said, "But, if you're alive, why.?"  
  
Dawn unhitched her cloak and tossed it over an armchair. She strolled up to Xander and tousled his hair. "I had a crush on you for the longest time. Did you know that?" Xander nodded slowly, and Dawn glanced at his daughter.  
  
"It's a shame you're pussy whipped by yet another Slayer."  
  
Hannah tried to take a swing at Dawn and was startled when her limbs wouldn't move. Xander and Willow found themselves similarly incapacitated.  
  
"Oh, come on," Dawn said. "I'm not as stupid as you are. I'm certainly not going to leave you free to move around. Suck it up like grownups."  
  
"Why did you kill my mother?" Hannah asked.  
  
"Why not?" she asked. "I knew it would piss off Buffy. Bummer that she bought it on the same night, but a bonus that Laurie ended up being the Slayer's mama. Poor Xander," she said mockingly, her lips inches from Xander's ear. "The look on your face at the funeral was so priceless that I almost took the credit then and there."  
  
Willow growled, and Dawn laughed.  
  
"Still wondering why I'm eeeeeeevil all of a sudden?"  
  
Willow shook her head. "No, I get it now."  
  
"Then, by all means, share with the class."  
  
"It was the monks," Willow started. She told them the gist of her conversation with Giles, about the power of the Key being tainted.  
  
"I prefer to think of it as 'freed,'" countered Dawn. "I feel quite liberated, in fact. Now, enough Oprah," she said, snapping her fingers and ending the conversation. "I want my Slayer."  
  
She moved from Xander to Hannah and gripped the girl by the neck.  
  
"You know, of the four Slayers I've known in my life, you're the most pathetic. And your mother was stupid, too. Thought I would let her drink you." She tightened her grip on Hannah's throat enough to make her wheeze, but not enough to completely cut off her oxygen supply, and Willow and Xander struggled ineffectively against their magical bonds. Dawn ran her fingernails over Hannah's face, reopening the wounds that had started to heal, and Hannah tried not to flinch.  
  
Dawn said, "Think of me as the anti-Slayer."  
  
Willow began building power, pulling it up through the roots of the earth, into her feet, though her legs and into the center of her chest, where she sent it pulsing through her arteries and veins. Dawn seemed to notice and stopped tormenting Hannah long enough to throw her a glance.  
  
"Don't try anything stupid, Willow. I have the pow-"  
  
She never got to finish the sentence, because Willow sent a magical blast through the room that disrupted the binding spell and sent the four of them staggering backward. Before Dawn could recover, Willow shouted "Escape!" and she, Xander and Hannah disappeared in a flash of light. 


	15. Chapter 15

Hellmouth Revisited Rating: R Spoilers: To be on the safe side, if you don't want to be spoiled, don't read this if you're not current on Buffy. Summary: Willow, now a Watcher, returns to Sunnydale 20 years after the end of the series to train the new Slayer. She has to contend with a familiar evil set on destroying the town - and what life has become for the people she left behind. Disclaimer: The characters from "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" aren't mine. They belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy, who do a much better job with them than I ever could. Hannah and the other non-Buffy characters ARE mine, and I get to do with them as I please. Notes: This takes place 20 years after the season 7 finale. I don't know how the season is going to end - it's just conjecture.  
  
The group rematerialized in an alleyway outside the Bronze.  
  
"What now?" Xander asked. "She's going to come after us."  
  
Willow said, "We could--"  
  
"Weapons, we need weapons," Hannah interrupted. She looked around the alleyway for something sharp.  
  
Willow tried again. "We could try talking to her."  
  
They stared at her openmouthed. "Are you serious?" Hannah asked.  
  
"She's not dead. That makes all the difference. We might still be able to save her."  
  
Xander ran a hand through his hair. "Will, you saw what she's been responsible for. She's killed people."  
  
"I've killed people," Willow replied quietly.  
  
He looked at her with the light of understanding in his eyes. Willow was still feeling guilty about Warren and Rack and almost destroying the world - and especially about nearly killing Dawn. Now she wanted to make it right by bringing Dawn back.  
  
"You killed people you had a personal beef with. Not random innocents. Besides, you said yourself that she wasn't supposed to be around this long. What if it's too late to save her?"  
  
"Did you think it was too late to save me?"  
  
Hannah stopped rummaging through the garbage and joined the debate.  
  
"Goddamit, Willlow, this isn't about you! It's about Dawn, remember? The psycho who has been ordering demons to kill people? The same psycho who wants my blood so she can bring about hell on earth? You weren't having clarity problem when you staked my mother."  
  
"That was different."  
  
"Of course. It always is."  
  
Watcher and Slayer stared off, hands on hips, and Xander wondered how badly he was going to get his ass kicked trying to break up a fight between them. Finally, Willow stepped back.  
  
"I'll make you a deal," she said. "We try to talk her down. If it doesn't work, you can hack away."  
  
"Sounds like a plan to me. All we need are hacking tools."  
  
Willow mumbled a few words under her breath. An axe appeared in Xander's hand, and a broadsword in Hannah's.  
  
"What about you?" Hannah asked.  
  
"I have all the weapons I need right here," she said, holding up her hands.  
  
The three of them were nearly out of the alleyway when a yellow glow lit up the darkness and then faded. Dawn was back.  
  
"That was so rude," she complained. She flashed her palm, and the three of them flew backward into the brick wall, landing on a pile of boxes.  
  
Willow staggered to her feet to see Dawn hovering over her.  
  
"What's the matter, Willow? Not used to someone else having the mojo?"  
  
"It doesn't have to be this way," Willow said. "You can still come back. We love you. Please, Dawnie, come back to us." She tried in vain to check the emotions that threatened to overwhelm her. How had things gotten so fucked up that she was in a dark alleyway, about to fight to the death with Dawn Summers?  
  
"How sweet," Dawn answered. "But I don't want to come back." She kept an eye on Xander and Hannah, who seemed to be keeping their distance, as she spoke to Willow.  
  
"I'm done being the useless one. Buffy was always afraid of me. Afraid that one day I would be more powerful than she was. Well, she was right."  
  
"You were never useless. Buffy loved you with all her heart. You were everything good that she fought for."  
  
"Yeah, like someone's new puppy. Buffy stole my destiny. Now I want a new one."  
  
Confusion clouded Willow's eyes, and Dawn continued, clearly relishing her chance to vent.  
  
"I was supposed to destroy the world, remember? That was my purpose - the reason for my sorry-ass existence. Buffy wouldn't let me destroy it, but she wouldn't let me save it, either. That bitch wanted all the glory for herself -- no pun intended."  
  
"Buffy did it out of love, Dawn. She did it because she loved you more than her own life."  
  
"No, I don't think so," Dawn said slowly, but her voice trembled beneath the hurt in her words.  
  
"Buffy loved you. We all did. And do. Please, Dawn." Willow's words flowed from her heart to her lips, and she recalled a lifetime ago on a nearby bluff, preparing to scorch the earth as Xander's words shattered the angry wall around her heart. Could she do the same for Dawn?  
  
"You loved Buffy, too," Willow continued. "I know you did. Please try to remember." Willow was begging now, but she didn't care.  
  
"Buffy gave up. Screw 'er," she said, sniffling. She ran the back of her hand across her nose, and her eyes were glassy with unshed tears. "Besides, it's too late. You said it yourself. I'm tainted."  
  
"No, baby," Willow said softly, reaching out a hand to touch Dawn's face. Dawn didn't pull away. "You're bitter and angry, and you're fighting a very dark force inside you. But we can help, if you let us."  
  
Dawn's lip quivered, and Willow felt her waver. But then something closed within her, and Willow felt nothing but void.  
  
"Enough of this shit!" Dawn shouted. "You're just trying to confuse me. Die!" Another burst of power sent Willow flying into the wall, and she felt her skull crack against the bricks. Darkness and flashes of light flitted across her eyes, and everything went blurry. She thought she felt Xander touch her face, but she couldn't be sure.  
  
The scene that played out just a few feet away was invisible to her except for the waves of fear and anger and hatred that seeped under her fingernails, and a soothing voice spoke in jumbled words she couldn't understand.  
  
It would be okay, she thought, if she could just focus on Hannah. She drew all the magick she had left into a ball of protection and engulfed the girl with it. That was all she could do. She'd failed to get through to Dawn, and now her only hope was that her Slayer, with a little help from her magick, would save the world like so many Slayers before her.  
  
About ten feet from where Xander sat hovering over a bleeding Willow, Hannah fought just to stay upright. Something was keeping Dawn's power from knocking her into next Wednesday, but, even without her self-described "mojo," she was more powerful than anything the girl has faced before. There were no more words as Dawn and Hannah exchanged blows.  
  
Hannah focused on the basics and tried to avoid Dawn's rage-fueled assault, swinging and thrusting her sword between blocks. Still, she found herself tasting her own blood more than once, and soon she had to take the fight hand to hand when her sword went flying from her grasp. Dawn kicked her in the stomach, sending her airborne. When she hit the ground, all reason abandoned her, and the Slayer bloodlust took over the fight.  
  
Hannah gained the upper hand as the fighting became a natural part of her, like breathing or swallowing. Kick, punch, block, kick, kick. A few well-placed hits later, Dawn was on her back and looking at the night sky. Hannah grabbed her by her hair and repeatedly slammed her head into the sidewalk until Dawn's eyes closed and she slipped into unconsciousness.  
  
Hannah gasped for air, reason once again regaining control, and her father knelt down beside her.  
  
"How is she?" he asked.  
  
"Unconscious, but alive. How 'bout Willow?"  
  
"The same. We need to get her to a hospital. You, too" With a handkerchief, he dabbed at the blood that trickled down her face.  
  
"What about Dawn? Are we going to have to fight all over again when she wakes up?"  
  
"Worry about that later. Right now, why don't you go call 911?"  
  
Hannah wandered off in search of a pay phone, and he leaned over Dawn's unconscious body. Her eyes opened halfway, and she moved her lips silently.  
  
"If you have something to say, say it," Xander ordered.  
  
Dawn found his hand and grasped it in her own. "Double O Xander," she whispered. "This can only end badly."  
  
"Do you still want to kill us?"  
  
"Just the Slayer, for now," she slurred. "The rest later."  
  
It shouldn't have been like this. Buffy had fought too hard and too long for it to all come down to tainted energy and festering jealousy, but here they were. Dawn hadn't just tried to kill them all. Specifically, she'd destroyed his family, and here she was, telling him that she wanted more. Willow was right. Trying to get through to her had been the right thing to do - still was, in fact - but he didn't have that kind of trust to spare.  
  
Xander ran his fingers over the handle of the axe at his side. It was now or never.  
  
In one fluid motion, he brought the axe down over Dawn's head, her eyes wide with understanding. separating it from its body and sending it flying into some nearby garbage. Dawn's body glittered, and then dissolved into a warm, green mist. Xander dropped the axe and spent the next six minutes talking soothingly to Willow as he waited for the ambulance to arrive. 


	16. Chapter 16

Hellmouth Revisited  
Rating: R  
Spoilers: To be on the safe side, if you don't want to be spoiled, don't read this if you're not current on Buffy.   
Summary: Willow, now a Watcher, returns to Sunnydale 20 years after the end of the series to train the new Slayer. She has to contend with a familiar evil set on destroying the town – and what life has become for the people she left behind.   
Disclaimer: The characters from "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" aren't mine. They belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy, who do a much better job with them than I ever could. Hannah and the other non-Buffy characters ARE mine, and I get to do with them as I please.  
Notes: This takes place 20 years after the season 7 finale. I don't know how the season is going to end – it's just conjecture.   
  
  
The brightness of the hospital lighting made Willow sorry that she'd opened her eyes. But she was much happier when she saw Xander smiling down at her.   
  
"Welcome back, sleepyhead," he said.   
  
"How long was I out?" she asked, mumbling around a mouthful of pain and fatigue.   
  
"Seven hours. You have a concussion, but, fortunately, you're thick, and the doctors say you're going to be fine."  
  
"And Hannah?"   
  
"She's fine. She's home getting some sleep."  
  
Willow's face relaxed, but she tensed up again when the next question occurred to her.   
"Dawn?"  
  
Xander's expression darkened. "She's dead," he said simply.   
  
Willow closed her eyes, her concussion and her sudden stab of grief combining to make her dizzy.   
  
"So, Hannah killed her after all."  
  
Xander didn't answer. Instead, he wrapped his fingers tightly around the bedrail.   
  
"Xander, what happened?"  
  
"Nothing. I'll tell you when you're feeling better." He turned to leave, and Willow struggled against the tubes and machinery in an attempt to sit upright.   
  
"Don't you dare walk out of here!" she screamed. "Tell me what happened!"  
  
A nurse heard the commotion and warned Xander that if he didn't keep things calm he would have to leave. As she walked away, he leaned over Willow and whispered in her ear, "Hannah didn't kill Dawn. I did."  
  
She fell back against her pillow wordlessly.   
  
"Don't look at me like that," he pleaded angrily. "My responsibility was to Hannah, not Dawn. I couldn't let her get hurt again." His eyes seemed to be begging Willow for forgiveness and understanding, but she wasn't sure those gifts were hers to bestow.   
  
"I'm glad Buffy's not here," she said instead.  
  
"Yeah, me too.   
  
The life drained out of him, and suddenly he looked as if he hadn't slept in weeks.   
  
"Are you mad?" he asked.   
  
She took a moment to really think about the question, and then answered, "No, not mad. Just disappointed."  
  
Xander blinked hard, hating himself for the sadness in her eyes. He could handle anger, even unrelenting rage, but Willow's disappointment felt like a splinter in his heart that he couldn't quite reach.  
  
With nothing left to say, he turned again and walked out. Willow stared after him, angry – not at Xander, but at the world in general. Dawn was dead, destroyed by a power she'd never asked for in a world she'd technically never been born into, and Xander had sacrificed the one thing that had elevated him above the other Scoobies. And then there was Willow -- helping to launch a brand new cycle of violence and death, with a girl who was woefully out of place in the role, because the only other option was annihilation.   
  
She knew she wouldn't quit. She's go back to Xander's house, they'd trade banter and watch old movies, and she'd continue to train Hannah until the girl didn't need her anymore. They'd move on, and eventually Dawn's death would become one of those issues that faded silently into the background of their lives. Xander would carry it with him for the rest of his life, the way she carried her own darkness in a tiny pouch in her soul. And they'd begin the next chapter. 


End file.
